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Author/Artist Review

Author: Michael A. DonaldsonSubmitted: December 20, 2012

Tell us a little about yourself. Dr. Michael A. Donaldson is the senior pastor of Washington Beltway Community Church, which is a multicultural church in the Washington, DC, metropolitan region. He emphasizes the power of pastoral care, evangelism, and relationships through small groups, with these groups coming together for corporate celebratory worship and fellowship.

Mike's international research on small groups has convinced him that small, holistic groups empower everyone in the church to be blessed, but more importantly, to be a blessing to others as they participate in ministry. Michael has participated in ministry for over thirty years. In the ministry, Michael has served in various capacities, including campus ministry, international youth ministry, Christian educator, hospital and airport chaplaincy, radio and television announcer, and pastor. He also has been fortunate to participate in the corporate finance/accounting sector for over thirty years, working in various industries for small, medium, and Fortune 500 companies, with most of these being in a managerial capacity.

Through this unique gift-mix Mike has been a blessing to the Church and the secular environment. He and his wife, Christy (who has a similar gift mix), have formed Donaldsn and Associates, LLC, which specializes in church consulting. It is their desire to empower the Church in its mission to the world. Mike attended and graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary, where he earned a Doctor of Ministry degree. He is also a graduate of Wake Forest University, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree, and is an alumnus of Marshall University, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree majoring in accounting. Mike is a volunteer chaplain at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, DC, and a member of several academic professional organizations. Michael; his wife, Christy; and their Yorkiepoo, Toby, live in suburban Virginia.

What was your motivation behind this project? The motivation behind this book was to create alternative ways to perform ministry in an urban enviroment where traffic congestion prevails, that facilitates small group community not only for church members, but for the unchurched.
Facilitating this process, is holding these small groups in neutral locations outside the church building, in the busy urban marketplace, near transportation hubs where people are working, live and attend school. These locations are mobile, accessible, proximate and time-efficient (MAPT), and this model is known as the DOT Small Group (Cell) Model SM and making it more iniviting for both the believer and those to be in the harvest.

What do you hope folks will gain from this project? I hope this project will be a source of inspiration for churches and minister to explore new methodologies of performing ministry, especially in urban enviroments that brings the "Church to the People" instead of the "people coming to church." I believe this creates relationships and commuity admist isolation in urban areas making it more accessible to those to be won in the harvest

How were you personally impacted by working on this project? I have been personally impacted by this proejct, by seeing it "lived out" in my urban ministry context after many years of researching and implementing the concepts.

Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? I have many sources of inspiration and favorite authors. However, the first author that challenged my paragigm of ministry understanding was Howard Snyder